Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) Acquires RadioShack Brands
One might ask: What is left of RadioShack? Surprisingly more than you might think. Just last week, the company was purchased by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a startup that started in 2019.
REV have been busy grabbing other retail giants of yesteryear like Modell’s Sporting Goods, Pier 1, Dressbarn and more.
REV plans to focus on making RadioShack an online portal moving forward, and it says it has “strong existing sales and sales potential” while REV thinks it can resurrect the all but defunct company.
On RadioShack’s current website, the statement reads “ATTENTION: Our Store is Closed for The Next Week for a Stock & Inventory Restructure. We’ll Be Back Very Soon!”
This appears to be evidence of the current restructure, though it also is happening during one of the biggest sales periods of the year. REV confirms it will be re-launching the site soon too.
REV have been successful in renewing some of these brands with this strategy. Dressbarn reportedly doubled their revenue between the first two quarters of 2020.
For anyone old enough to remember a time before Amazon and the dominance of e-commerce, RadioShack was king when it came to buying in-store tech products.
The company was founded all the way back in 1921 and presided over more than half a century of change in the tech world.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, RadioShack was the go to place to purchase headphones, various cords, and so on.
Stranger Things fans might remember Sean Astin’s character’s place of employment as the RadioShack of the town of Hawkins.
Online shopping was not kind to the retailer, however, and other competitors like Best Buy and Target also tapped into a large swath of their market share.
The company has filed for bankruptcy two times in the last five years alone.
Now it simply authorizes the use of its brand name to third-party stores along with selling a few branded products at the crafts outlet, Hobbytown. The “Sharper Image” and Kohl’s have a similar kind of relationship.
REV hasn’t said whether or not RadioShack branded products will still be sold at Hobbytown stores yet, but it seems pretty clear that the company is focusing on online retail. Whether or not this will help resurrect the RadioShack brand is uncertain, but in the age of online purchases it could at least be a somewhat successful endeavor for REV.
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